Dyce Academy
Aberdeen City Council
26 April 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education (HMIE) inspects schools in order to
let parents1, young people and the local community know
whether their school provides a good education. Inspectors also
discuss with school staff how they can improve the quality of
education.
At the beginning of the inspection, we ask the headteacher and
staff about the strengths of the school, what needs to improve,
and how they know. We use the information they give us to help
us plan what we are going to look at. During the inspection, we
go into classes and join other activities which young people are
involved in. We also gather the views of young people, parents,
staff and members of the local community. We find their views
very helpful and use them together with the other information we
have collected to arrive at our view of the quality of education.
This report tells you what we found during the inspection and the
quality of education in the school. We describe how well young
people are doing, how good the school is at helping them to learn
and how well it cares for them. We comment on how well staff,
parents and young people work together and how they go about
improving the school. We also comment on how well the school
works with other groups in the community, including services
which support young people. Finally, we focus on how well the
school is led and how staff help the school achieve its aims.
If you would like to learn more about our inspection of the school,
please visit www.hmie.gov.uk. Here you can find analyses of
questionnaire returns from young people, parents and staff, and
details about young people’s examination performance. We will
not provide questionnaire analyses where the numbers of returns
are so small that they could identify individuals. Where applicable
there will also be a report on the learning community surrounding
the school.
1
Throughout this report, the term ‘parents’ should be taken to include foster carers,
residential care staff and carers who are relatives or friends.
Contents
1. The school
2. Particular strengths of the school
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving their
school community?
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
8. What happens next?
1. The school
Dyce Academy is a non-denominational school which serves the
suburb of Dyce in the north of Aberdeen and the surrounding rural
area, including the villages of Newmachar and Kingseat in
Aberdeenshire. It is the home of Aberdeen City Music School
(ACMS), a national centre of excellence in music. There is a specialist
(ASN) base for young people who have additional learning needs and
a Mainstream Inclusion of Children on the Autistic Spectrum (MICAS)
base. Places in the specialist bases are allocated by Aberdeen
education service. The roll was 547, including 38 young people who
attend the ACMS, when the inspection was carried out in March 2011.
Young people’s attendance was in line with the national average in
2009/2010.
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2. Particular strengths of the school
•
Teachers’ commitment to meeting the needs of all learners.
•
Effective collaboration with Bucksburn Academy which significantly
enhances the senior school curriculum.
•
The wide range of opportunities for young people to develop
additional skills for life and work.
•
The very high standard in performing skills of young people in the
Aberdeen City Music School.
3. How well do young people learn and achieve?
Learning and achievement
Almost all young people are responsible and motivated to learn.
Those in the MICAS base engage well in learning activities across the
school. Young people in the ACMS are highly focused and work
confidently. They engage very responsibly in demanding practice
routines. Across the school, young people contribute confidently to
classroom discussions and work very well together on tasks which
develop their thinking skills. For example, young people at S3 enjoyed
working out solutions together at a BP enterprise event. Young people
would benefit from more opportunities to develop their collaborative
skills. Overall, they need to make greater use of information and
communications technology to enhance their learning. Teachers
increasingly ask young people for their views on lessons but many
young people would like more say in the way they learn. Although
young people have started to evaluate their own progress, they are not
always clear how to improve. They need to develop their skills as
independent learners. Across the school, the majority of young people
feel safe and almost all feel that good relationships with their teachers
help them learn better.
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Young people are developing confidence and social skills through a
wide range of sporting and cultural activities. Those in the MICAS
base grow in confidence and move on successfully to work or further
study. In the ASN base, young people enjoy learning relevant skills
through individualised programmes. As a result, their attendance has
improved. Those enrolled in the ACMS perform to a very high
standard at regional and national events. A number of young people
are developing teamwork and leadership skills though The Duke of
Edinburgh’s Award scheme. Across the school, many are learning to
work effectively with others through participation in groups such as the
eco group or Fair Trade group. The school has achieved Fair Trade
status. Young people have developed a greater awareness of global
citizenship through extensive charity fundraising as well as
international visits and visitors. A number of young people, particularly
those at S6, are developing as leaders through being buddies to
younger pupils for example. There is scope to develop these skills in
more young people, at all stages. The school has made good use of
timetabled lessons to enable young people to achieve in different
contexts. For example, almost all young people at S3 achieve a first
aid qualification. Links with business partners have enabled those on
extended work placements to learn useful employability skills. The
school is aware that it now needs to explore how the range of
achievements improves skills for learning. The school needs to
celebrate success in all areas more effectively.
By the end of S2, the majority of young people attain appropriate
national levels in reading, writing and mathematics. Young people in
the MICAS base are making good progress from prior levels of
achievement. By the end of S4, results in national examinations are
overall above national averages. By the end of S6, performance at
Higher is in line with schools serving those with similar needs and
backgrounds. In a few subjects at S5/S6, too many young people
have not achieved an overall award. The school recently introduced a
revised tracking system to monitor young people’s progress better.
Young people in the ASN base are developing good skills in literacy
and numeracy which are helping them achieve more in other subject
areas. Almost all those in the ACMS attain the highest levels in
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national examinations, and achieve Associated Board of the Royal
Schools of Music (ABRSM) awards at a very high level. Most young
people move on to employment, training or other educational
opportunities on leaving school.
Curriculum and meeting learning needs
The school provides a broad general education. Young people are
provided with an element of choice to enhance their overall learning
experience. Staff have revised courses at S1 to take account of
Curriculum for Excellence but are at the early stages of developing
literacy, numeracy and health and wellbeing across all subject areas.
Departments recognise the need to build on young people’s learning in
primary school better. Young people in the MICAS base have a
curriculum that is tailored to the specific needs of the individual, with
an appropriate focus on communication. Staff need to ensure this
links more directly to Curriculum for Excellence. At S3/S4, young
people are developing useful life skills through a range of short
courses such as photography. Almost all in S4 learn about the world
of work through an effective work experience programme. At S4 and
S5, the school successfully offers vocational opportunities through
links with the local college and business partners. At S5/S6, very
effective links with another local secondary school create more choice
and opportunities. Young people in the ACMS benefit from a very high
quality programme in performing but the programme for creativity
needs to be improved. The school does not yet provide sufficient
opportunities for physical education or religious observance.
Almost all teachers provide relevant tasks and activities which match
the needs of learners. They provide good individual support during
lessons. They ensure classes know what they have to learn and
almost all encourage young people to assess their own progress and
that of their peers. In most classes, the pace of work is appropriate
although a few learners would benefit from more demanding work.
Homework practice varies and tasks do not always move young
people on in their learning. Support staff identify learners’ needs
effectively and give teachers useful strategies to support learners.
4
Learners with behaviour management issues would benefit from
similar strategies to help them manage their own behaviour. Individual
learning plans successfully identify ways of supporting the most
vulnerable learners. Pupil support assistants work very effectively with
teachers to ensure young people from the specialised bases join
mainstream classes successfully. Individual support teams would
achieve even more by building on the joint working already in place
and adopting a more cohesive approach to supporting all learners. In
the ACMS, young people thrive on individualised programme planning
and extensive one to one teaching.
4. How well do staff work with others to support young people’s
learning?
Effective links with a range of partner agencies such as health
professionals help young people achieve and feel cared for in school.
Very good pastoral links with primary schools, including a residential
experience in Cullen for P7 children, ensure that children settle into
secondary school quickly. Good links with local businesses and
agencies such as Voluntary Services Aberdeen develop young
people’s understanding of the world beyond school. Skills
Development Scotland and local partners prepare young people
successfully for moving on to employment or training. Young people
are developing a better understanding of diversity through, for
example, the school’s links with a school in Kenya. The school works
with parents through the very supportive Parent Association. The
school handles the few complaints it receives appropriately and
overall, parents are satisfied with the work of the school. A few would
like better communication links, and more say in the work of the
school.
5. Are staff and young people actively involved in improving
their school community?
Pupil councils and groups such as the eco group give young people
the opportunity to air their views. Many feel the school does not act on
those views. Many staff run clubs and other activities to broaden
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young people’s interests. Almost all staff are involved in working
groups which have started to take forward key aspects of learning
such as health promotion. Staff now need to be more involved in
sharing best practice in teaching and learning, as well as leading
professional development sessions. The headteacher has introduced
a number of important processes to find out how well the school is
doing and to engage staff in school improvement. These changes
have begun to make a difference. Self-evaluation processes now
need to be refined and extended to all areas of the school, including
the specialist provisions, to ensure greater impact on learning.
6. Does the school have high expectations of all young people?
Almost all young people are pleasant, polite, and supportive of each
other. Most feel they are treated fairly. The authority is currently
reviewing security arrangements in the building to ensure all young
people feel safe. The school promotes diversity successfully through
the curriculum and events such as European language week. The
school has taken effective steps to promote positive attitudes to health
and wellbeing. Overall, young people behave well but staff need to
use agreed strategies to promote positive behaviour more consistently
across the school. Most young people work hard but staff need to
encourage them to have higher aspirations. Young people in the
ACMS respond very well to high expectations of their attitude and
commitment. Across the whole school, almost all young people and
staff are proud of the school and its achievements.
7. Does the school have a clear sense of direction?
The headteacher, along with the senior management team, has
introduced a number of key initiatives to improve the work of the
school. A strong focus on improving teaching and learning has had a
positive impact on the classroom experience. The headteacher
involves staff in school improvement and encourages them to lead
initiatives such as the highly successful Transform theatre project.
Faculty heads are very positive about their role in raising expectations
and achievement in young people. Their role in taking forward other
6
whole-school initiatives is not yet clear. The school has recently
undergone a number of developments and staffing changes. A
number of staff feel that leadership across the school could be more
effective and they are uncertain about the school’s vision for the future.
The headteacher now needs to take steps to address these concerns.
The headteacher and senior management team are aware of the need
to review the school’s aims with staff, parents and partners to agree
their key priorities for development. The headteacher should then
communicate this vision for the school to all staff, including those in
specialist areas, to ensure that all share a common sense of purpose.
8. What happens next?
We are confident that, with support from the education authority, the
school will be able to make the necessary improvements in light of the
inspection findings. As a result, we will make no more visits in
connection with this inspection. The school and the education
authority will inform parents about the school's progress in improving
the quality of education.
We have agreed the following areas for improvement with the school
and education authority.
•
Working with all staff and stakeholders, develop a shared
understanding of the school’s vision and priorities for success.
•
Continue to work towards a culture of high expectations.
•
Develop a more coordinated approach to the delivery of the whole
range of pupil support.
•
Consolidate and build upon links with parents and other partners.
7
Quality indicators help schools, education authorities and inspectors to
judge what is good and what needs to be improved in the work of the
school. You can find these quality indicators in the HMIE publication
How good is our school?. Following the inspection of each school, the
Scottish Government gathers evaluations of three important quality
indicators to keep track of how well all Scottish schools are doing.
Here are the evaluations for Dyce Academy.
Improvements in performance
Learners’ experiences
Meeting learning needs
good
good
good
We also evaluated the following aspects of the work of the school.
The curriculum
Improvement through self-evaluation
HM Inspector: Fiona A Pate
26 April 2011
8
good
satisfactory
When we write reports, we use the following word scale so that our
readers can see clearly what our judgments mean.
excellent
very good
good
means
means
means
satisfactory
weak
unsatisfactory
means
means
means
outstanding, sector leading
major strengths
important strengths with some areas
for improvement
strengths just outweigh weaknesses
important weaknesses
major weaknesses
If you would like to find out more about our inspections or get an
electronic copy of this report, please go to www.hmie.gov.uk.
Please contact us if you want to know how to get the report in a
different format, for example, in a translation, or if you wish to
comment about any aspect of our inspections. You can contact us
at HMIEenquiries@hmie.gsi.gov.uk or write to us at BMCT,
HM Inspectorate of Education, Denholm House, Almondvale Business
Park, Almondvale Way, Livingston EH54 6GA.
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for deaf users. Please do not use this number for voice calls as the
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You can find our complaints procedure on our website
www.hmie.gov.uk or alternatively you can contact our Complaints
Manager, at the address above or by telephoning 01506 600259.
Crown Copyright 2011
HM Inspectorate of Education